Ex New Zealand prime minister to speak at potato event

Former New Zealand prime minister Jim Bolger is to appear as a keynote speaker at the seventh World Potato Congress.

The international conference, which will be held in Christchurch on March 22 - 25, 2009, will be based on is expected to attract 500 delegates from around the world.

The theme will be ‘Nourishing the Future’.

The last event was held in Idaho, in the US, in 2006.

Bolger, who has a farming background, was prime minister of New Zealand from 1990 to 1997, and he was New Zealand’s ambassador to the US from 1999 to 2001. He is now chairman of the advisory board of the World Agricultural Forum.

Terry Olsen, congress committee chairman, said: “Mr Bolger’s contribution to the congress will set the scene for discussion of issues, which are of global importance to all growers, while at the same time remaining firmly focussed on the realities of the business of farming.”